Real Relationships Real Revenue - Audio Edition | Invest in Relationships to Build Your Business and Your Career

Mo asks Brent Atkins: What is your personal definition of business development? When training his team, he tells them to "build your brand." The way they go about building relationships and adding value will be different from Brent's, and they need to lean into that. When Brent worked on the carrier side of the business, his first goal when developing new business relationships was becoming a trusted individual in that person's network. Brent always strived to have the credibility to say when he wasn't a good fit for someone, and by being willing to do that, when his solution was the right fit, he had that person's attention and trust. Progyny has a great solution, but it's not the right fit for every organization right away. When that is the case, Brent digs into other areas of the business they want to improve on and offers material on how they impact those areas to see if that makes sense. Once they do those steps, the prospect often comes back with Brent in the #1 position in their mind. We've all experienced a situation where we felt like we had a great connection but it resulted in silence. Brent tells the story of when that happened to him and how by letting them know that he didn't have their attention right now, but he would like to reconnect in the future when they're ready, and how that got him an immediate response. To child trust, connect with the prospect at their level. Ask them questions and give them the space to answer. When you are dealing with someone on an individual basis, they might tell you something real about themselves, and if you can remember that it shows that you think they're important and want to connect in a thoughtful way. The people that develop the deepest relationships are the ones that are interested in the other person. Finding things in common is one of the highest correlations to likeability. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Brent Atkins on LinkedIn

Mo asks Brent Atkins: Tell me about the time you realized that business development was awesome. Brent learned early on the need for business development because he has done sales throughout his career. The one thing he realized from all his different work experiences was that he loved interacting with people and connecting with them. He understood that there was far more depth to sales than just telling someone your story. He had a desire to learn more and be more successful in his relationships in business and very quickly realized that there is a huge difference between talking to someone and listening to someone. Through the course of interacting with one of Brent's early bosses, he learned he needed to be prepared for the questions he was going to ask Brent, but also that he needed answers to the questions from their perspective in order to serve them better. He needed to have a dialogue with the customer because all his knowledge about what he was selling was only one small piece of the overall business development process. The transition from talking to listening is a key mindset shift that all business development professionals need to learn. Brent now leads a team of many younger salespeople and helps them better understand the business development process. The first step is to help them want to learn more about business development, because without that desire, nothing else sticks. When setting meetings, Brent teaches people to set an objective for the meeting that you want the prospect to take away. If you have a lot of slides in your initial presentation, you're making a mistake. Brent likes to start with a very light slidedeck in the beginning because his goal is to understand the reason for the meeting in the first place as well as the roles of the people he's talking to. Brent is a big proponent of the pregnant pause. When you get a response, follow it up with another thoughtful question. Follow ups are where you get traction in a relationship. When it comes to the fertility space, Brent starts out with curiosity. Asking them about their familiarity with the space and exploring their experience is the foundation for a more fruitful conversation and almost always leads to how his solution solves their issue. It sets the tone for the conversation and allows him and his team to come back with a robust solution for their problem. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] Brent Atkins on LinkedIn

Cannon Carr shares the insights he's learned over the years about why he's not a sales guy, but loves business development. Learn about the key mindset shift that unlocks the power of business development and makes it something fun, easy, and repeatable, and how to instill simple habits that deepen relationships by being proactively helpful every single week. Mo asks Cannon Carr: When did you realize that business development was great? There was not one moment, but a story stands out in particular for Cannon. When his father was retiring from the firm he was working at, he told him that he was a great analyst but not a great salesperson, and if he wanted to succeed, he would need to figure that out. When a professional services firm reaches a certain revenue threshold, the same things that got them to that point won't help grow past it. Simply hiring a rainmaker won't necessarily solve the problem. You need a broader team working towards business development to tap a broader network to grow a firm. The real mindset shift that unlocks the power of business development is "Are you selling, or are you helping to solve problems?" Take the sales hat off and integrate yourself into your client's lives. Understand what their problems are, and if you can be alongside them during the inevitable transitions in their life, you can deepen the relationship. It's about relevancy and solving problems. The sales and referrals will come naturally out of that. Life has transitions that create challenges along the way. Cannon helps his clients with a wealth plan that keeps their legacy and lifestyle intact. Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your personal definition of business development? If you have a craft that you know and love and want to grow, you are naturally going to step into business development so you might as well do it right. For Cannon, business development is about connecting people and ideas. He thinks of it as purposeful engagement that connects those two things. Connecting people with ideas often becomes deeply personal. During the pandemic, Cannon noticed a number of clients struggling with aging parents so they put a lot of effort into coming up with and connecting clients with ideas to help manage the issue. Taxes and the rapidly changing legislative landscape has been another area where Cannon and his team have been working with clients to stay ahead of the curve. The foundation is always being helpful rather than looking directly for business. It's not about the revenue, it's about enriching lives. Sometimes the solution falls outside of the firm's specialty and that's okay as long as the end result is helping a person out. You have to think of your relationships as a portfolio with investements in people all the time. Being proactive and helpful will eventually pay off. Not everything will connect. You have to look for additional opportunities to be helpful and keep reaching out. Think about business development as solving problems through connecting people and ideas together. If you are doing a good job, you will naturally get your share of the business. Proactive engagement is vital for service businesses. Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your favorite science, step, or tool from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? The most interesting science for Cannon is around habits and the metaphor of the rider and the elephant for the conscious and subconscious mind. The elephant is a lot more powerful, and if you can't control it, you are not going to get where you want to go. This is where the habits and routines come in to provide alignment with your elephant. Our emotions and our habits determine most of what we do. With the right mindset around business development and our emotions and habits, we can be more successful. Cannon sees this play out in client's lives when wealth transfers to another generation. His team spends a fair bit of time helping their clients manage their own emotions. You have patterns. They are either the right patterns or the wrong patterns. Putting in deliberate time and getting out of your comfort zone is how to take away the wrong ones and instill the right ones. The key is to simply start and commit to 15 minutes of planning time each week. Combine purpose with a better pattern, and let it grow over time. The Protemoi List is a great tool you can use to create the habit of investing into the relationships that matter the most to your business development efforts. Every Friday, Cannon looks at an Excel sheet that he uses to track his business development work and make sure he is doing something every week to make progress on his most important relationships. Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is the business development story you are most proud of? Cannon's business is about long-term relationships, sometimes multiple generations, so being able to separate out personal risk and business risk is very important. Cannon's favorite business development story involves helping personal friends n

Mo asks Cannon Carr: If you could record a video about business development and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Cannon would record a few simple vignettes, mainly focused on the why of business development as well as the storytelling, patterns and habits involved. The first one would basically be a quote from Maya Angelou. "I learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Following videos would involve some inspiring Rocky music, Steve Jobs' iPhone keynote speech, and an interview with Jimmy Fallon and a guest creating something fun together. So many people struggle with business development because they believe that they didn't get into their profession to sell. Playful exploration and spontaneity can make things fun, but there has to be purpose involved. Sales have none of those elements. If you can build that kind of fun energy into what you do, you can deepen the relationship, provide value, and grow your business at the same time. Don't be afraid to have fun and be vulnerable. Making your Most Important Things into a game can add another level of motivation and enjoyment to building business development habits that lead to growth. It's about creating the right behaviors. You can't control the outcome, only what you put into it. Cannon's firm has an internal coach to help keep everyone on track and doing proactively helpful things for the marketplace, knowing that the revenue will follow. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com

Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is the business development story you are most proud of? Cannon's business is about long-term relationships, sometimes multiple generations, so being able to separate out personal risk and business risk is very important. Cannon's favorite business development story involves helping personal friends navigate their challenges. He and his team found ways and resources to help them in a time of need and often anonymously It's amazing what you can get done when no one takes the credit. Cannon's role was in uncovering the need. The client mentioned something that triggered Cannon to listen more closely and look for ways to help. He tapped into his team to go deeper and be even more helpful for this person. Listen, notice, act. Cannon picked up on some fatigue in the person's voice and some comments that led him to believe there was something more going on. Some good follow up questions helped too. There is no stock follow up question that works every time, but there are common themes that everyone shares. The goal is to listen closely and the follow up question will reveal itself. You should be able to summarize what they are saying accurately and paraphrase it back. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com

Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your favorite science, step, or tool from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? The most interesting science for Cannon is around habits and the metaphor of the rider and the elephant for the conscious and subconscious mind. The elephant is a lot more powerful, and if you can't control it, you are not going to get where you want to go. This is where the habits and routines come in to provide alignment with your elephant. Our emotions and our habits determine most of what we do. With the right mindset around business development and our emotions and habits, we can be more successful. Cannon sees this play out in client's lives when wealth transfers to another generation. His team spends a fair bit of time helping their clients manage their own emotions. You have patterns. They are either the right patterns or the wrong patterns. Putting in deliberate time and getting out of your comfort zone is how to take away the wrong ones and instill the right ones. The key is to simply start and commit to 15 minutes of planning time each week. Combine purpose with a better pattern, and let it grow over time. The Protemoi List is a great tool you can use to create the habit of investing into the relationships that matter the most to your business development efforts. Every Friday, Cannon looks at an Excel sheet that he uses to track his business development work and make sure he is doing something every week to make progress on his most important relationships. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com

Mo asks Cannon Carr: What is your personal definition of business development? If you have a craft that you know and love and want to grow, you are naturally going to step into business development so you might as well do it right. For Cannon, business development is about connecting people and ideas. He thinks of it as purposeful engagement that connects those two things. Connecting people with ideas often becomes deeply personal. During the pandemic, Cannon noticed a number of clients struggling with aging parents so they put a lot of effort into coming up with and connecting clients with ideas to help manage the issue. Taxes and the rapidly changing legislative landscape has been another area where Cannon and his team have been working with clients to stay ahead of the curve. The foundation is always being helpful rather than looking directly for business. It's not about the revenue, it's about enriching lives. Sometimes the solution falls outside of the firm's specialty and that's okay as long as the end result is helping a person out. You have to think of your relationships as a portfolio with investements in people all the time. Being proactive and helpful will eventually pay off. Not everything will connect. You have to look for additional opportunities to be helpful and keep reaching out. Think about business development as solving problems through connecting people and ideas together. If you are doing a good job, you will naturally get your share of the business. Proactive engagement is vital for service businesses. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com

Mo asks Cannon Carr: When did you realize that business development was great? There was not one moment, but a story stands out in particular for Cannon. When his father was retiring from the firm he was working at, he told him that he was a great analyst but not a great salesperson, and if he wanted to succeed, he would need to figure that out. When a professional services firm reaches a certain revenue threshold, the same things that got them to that point won't help grow past it. Simply hiring a rainmaker won't necessarily solve the problem. You need a broader team working towards business development to tap a broader network to grow a firm. The real mindset shift that unlocks the power of business development is "Are you selling, or are you helping to solve problems?" Take the sales hat off and integrate yourself into your client's lives. Understand what their problems are, and if you can be alongside them during the inevitable transitions in their life, you can deepen the relationship. It's about relevancy and solving problems. The sales and referrals will come naturally out of that. Life has transitions that create challenges along the way. Cannon helps his clients with a wealth plan that keeps their legacy and lifestyle intact. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] cornercap.com

Katrina Johnson shares her business development insights pulled from years of experience and her background in social and neuroscience. Learn what it takes to convince a skeptic, why creating a habit around communication is the key to business development success, and a simple framework for training your mind to be less reactive and more focused on just doing the right thing instead of worrying about the outcome. Mo asks Katrina Johnson: Tell us the moment when you realized that business development was good and worth doing? Katrina's big aha moment was when she realized that the skill of business development can be learned. She started in academia and fell into consulting almost by accident, and she enjoyed her consulting work but she felt like her hands were tied. As a subcontractor, Katrina wasn't able to deliver the work in the way that she thought would be the most powerful for her clients. It wasn't until Katrina met Mo and learned about the GrowBIG system did she realize what was missing from her work. With a background in neural science, Katrina knew that the research and material were pointing her in the right direction, but in some ways digging into the research was also a curse. Katrina sometimes falls into the habit of using research as a way to hide and avoid putting it into practice. This is where her second big realization came into play, and that she had some underlying issue that was preventing her from executing. She decided to start off small and refine the process from a place of action. She began by going to networking events and trying to follow up with people, most of those efforts didn't pan out though. She landed a few speaking engagements with small groups of people and used that as a basis to create a relationship with people. She embraced deeper relationships rather than looser connections and in doing so stretched herself outside of her comfort zone. She doesn't set out to get meetings with important decision makers, but that often flows from naturally deepening relationships with people and being helpful. Katrina learned a lot about the value of targeting over the last year. She realized that when she can work with the management of an organization in some combination of assessment and coaching she's at her best. Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your personal definition of business development? Katrina likes helping people. For her, business development is about cultivating opportunities to help people. Business development doesn't always have a great reinforcement mechanism, but having a process established makes it much more consistent. Creating a habit around communication that makes it simpler, more meaningful, and consistent is what has helped Katrina stay the course. Using the tools and communication methods that your client uses is crucial. Katrina tries to make her communications quick and useful when touching base with someone and on whatever platform works for them. Lots of little touches can be extremely powerful relationship builders. Katrina carves out time on Mondays to reach out to people, but she also has notes on her calendar and a Protemoi list that help her keep track of communications. Just having a list of names of the most important people to you can be enough to encourage you to take action. Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your favorite business development strategy from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? Instead of a favorite, Katrina wants to emphasize one strategy that often goes unrecognized for how important it is, which is targeting. Targeting is critical to business development and as a student of minimalism, Katrina is always thinking about trade-offs. Minimalists understand trade-offs as an inherent part of life, but instead of thinking about what needs to be sacrificed, it's more about what to double down on. The subconscious emotional layer is what makes targeting tricky. We are evolutionarily primed to avoid loss and are naturally averse to subtraction. We only have so much time in our life. We can't just take on more, we have to target and figure out what are the things to go big on and what to let go of. Mo had a similar experience with the training GrowBIG. Every time he refined his method and message and who he wanted to serve by letting go of certain markets, it was a terrifying change but resulted in incredible growth over time. Working with a small niche can be scary, but it often leads to greater success as your effort is more refined and focused within your skillsett. When Katrina is doing her job well, she's often not operating at the forefront. In an ideal world, her clients are getting better and she eventually works herself out of a job. When someone comes to Katrina with a referral that isn't within her core focus, she always sets up a call with the person and leverages her own referral network to help that person. She always circles back to the person that refers them to let them know they've been taken care of. Mo asks K

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: If you could tape a message to your younger self about business development, what would it say? It would simply be one thing: Learn to walk the dog. When someone walks a dog, we assume that the person is in control, but that's not always the case. Our brains work in a similar way. The dogwalker is the prefrontal cortex, and the dog is the limbic system that responds and detects threats. The big question is who is in control? The truth is that the dog is in control most of the time. Everytime we stick to known associates instead of unknown prospects, or when we expect every email to get a response, the dog is in control. The sooner you can learn to walk the dog, the sooner you get to do the work you care about on your own terms. Even with the best tools and strategies at our disposal, most of the time we are only half as effective as we could be because we are being dragged around by our limbic system. It's not an issue of ego, as much as it is the part of your brain that has evolved to perceive threats. Threats aren't always tigers, they can also be getting rejected, feeling embarrassed, or losing status. The first job is to get out of your own way so the tools and strategies can do the work. Katrina focuses on awareness first about her emotions and experiences. A quick, simple label can be very effective in reducing the limbic system's response. Reframing it and considering other reasons something may or may not have happened makes it less emotional. Give your emotions context, label them, and reframe them. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. This is a foundational skill in business development. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected]

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is a business development story that you are particularly proud of? Katrina's story occurred five years ago when she went on a trip to meet a candidate for a President role at a textile manufacturer. Katrina knew she was skeptical, but didn't realize how skeptical. After the candidate was hired, Katrina ended up working with her for the first six months and through her unique knowledge of how that particular organization functioned was able to help considerably. Her relationship with this one skeptical person led to additional relationships and business. To win her over Katrina did three things. She didn't make it about her and take the skepticism personally, she got curious about why she was skeptical and what it could teach her, and she waited for holes to open for her to go deeper. It's easy to take offense from skepticism, but Katrina had to learn early on as a physician that you have to earn respect. You can't look at things from a scientific perspective when you're stuck in your own head. Being curious about the root of the person's skepticism makes it objective and less about you. Being candid with the client and honest about her perspectives was key to building trust and winning the skeptic over. Divorce yourself from the outcome and focus on doing the right thing. Quieting the anxious and emotional part of us can lead to more creativity and effectiveness. Focusing on process instead of outcomes is how you can control that. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected]

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your favorite business development strategy from the Snowball System or GrowBIG training? Instead of a favorite, Katrina wants to emphasize one strategy that often goes unrecognized for how important it is, which is targeting. Targeting is critical to business development and as a student of minimalism, Katrina is always thinking about trade-offs. Minimalists understand trade-offs as an inherent part of life, but instead of thinking about what needs to be sacrificed, it's more about what to double down on. The subconscious emotional layer is what makes targeting tricky. We are evolutionarily primed to avoid loss and are naturally averse to subtraction. We only have so much time in our life. We can't just take on more, we have to target and figure out what are the things to go big on and what to let go of. Mo had a similar experience with the training GrowBIG. Every time he refined his method and message and who he wanted to serve by letting go of certain markets, it was a terrifying change but resulted in incredible growth over time. Working with a small niche can be scary, but it often leads to greater success as your effort is more refined and focused within your skillsett. When Katrina is doing her job well, she's often not operating at the forefront. In an ideal world, her clients are getting better and she eventually works herself out of a job. When someone comes to Katrina with a referral that isn't within her core focus, she always sets up a call with the person and leverages her own referral network to help that person. She always circles back to the person that refers them to let them know they've been taken care of. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected]

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: What is your personal definition of business development? Katrina likes helping people. For her, business development is about cultivating opportunities to help people. Business development doesn't always have a great reinforcement mechanism, but having a process established makes it much more consistent. Creating a habit around communication that makes it simpler, more meaningful, and consistent is what has helped Katrina stay the course. Using the tools and communication methods that your client uses is crucial. Katrina tries to make her communications quick and useful when touching base with someone and on whatever platform works for them. Lots of little touches can be extremely powerful relationship builders. Katrina carves out time on Mondays to reach out to people, but she also has notes on her calendar and a Protemoi list that help her keep track of communications. Just having a list of names of the most important people to you can be enough to encourage you to take action. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected]

Mo asks Katrina Johnson: Tell us the moment when you realized that business development was good and worth doing? Katrina's big aha moment was when she realized that the skill of business development can be learned. She started in academia and fell into consulting almost by accident, and she enjoyed her consulting work but she felt like her hands were tied. As a subcontractor, Katrina wasn't able to deliver the work in the way that she thought would be the most powerful for her clients. It wasn't until Katrina met Mo and learned about the GrowBIG system did she realize what was missing from her work. With a background in neural science, Katrina knew that the research and material were pointing her in the right direction, but in some ways digging into the research was also a curse. Katrina sometimes falls into the habit of using research as a way to hide and avoid putting it into practice. This is where her second big realization came into play, and that she had some underlying issue that was preventing her from executing. She decided to start off small and refine the process from a place of action. She began by going to networking events and trying to follow up with people, most of those efforts didn't pan out though. She landed a few speaking engagements with small groups of people and used that as a basis to create a relationship with people. She embraced deeper relationships rather than looser connections and in doing so stretched herself outside of her comfort zone. She doesn't set out to get meetings with important decision makers, but that often flows from naturally deepening relationships with people and being helpful. Katrina learned a lot about the value of targeting over the last year. She realized that when she can work with the management of an organization in some combination of assessment and coaching she's at her best. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected]

Mike Duffy shares his insights into business development and creating relationships that move the world forward. Find out how Mike transformed his career in sales with one fateful and shocking conversation with his sales manager, why Mike's philosophy on asking questions is what allows him to always add value to his relationships, and why treating your profession the same way that a doctor does theirs is the key to sustained success. Mo asks Mike Duffy: When was the moment that you decided that business development was important and you needed to get great at it? Mike's dad started in sales so he had a front row seat on making sales from the very beginning. He started his sales career by selling ad space in a travel magazine, and once he got out of college, Mike started selling ladies clothes in California. He took a $500,000 territory and in 18 months turned it into $2.5 million. He won salesman of the year at the age of 24 and ended up having a beer with his sales manager which led to a conversation that changed everything for him. Mike took a deep dive into discovering what really makes a good sales program and he became a student of sales for the rest of his career. Mike teaches lawyers business development now under the assumption that he has to sell the idea to his students. The goal is to help them understand that adding value to a relationship or closing a deal is sales by another name. If we want to live the life we want, we have to get great at growth. Start with the people you are going to call and how you can have a conversation that creates curiosity. That allows you to learn about what they need. Business development is about helping people. Business development habits set you apart when it comes to employment as well. It's hard to ascertain someone's technical expertise in a 30-minute interview, but it's obvious when you care, listen intently, and make the conversation about the other person. You always have to be thinking about the long game. Some prospects may not turn into clients for years, so you need to focus on just moving the ball a little bit further each day. Be transparent, have humility, and be honest. Tell people when they are your #1 target and allow them to shape the relationship in a way that's valuable for them. Mo asks Mike Duffy: What is your personal definition of business development? Simply put, business development is helping others, connecting dots, and developing healthy and long lasting relationships. When you understand who your client is, whoever that happens to be in the moment, and add value for them, that's how you get stuff done. Where is the value chain and how are you adding value? It doesn't end with the person you are talking to right now. Servant leadership is the foundation for Mike's relationship philosophy. He's always asking himself internally about how he can be helpful to not only his client, but also his client's clients. When you ask the right questions, you get some interesting answers. Questions allow you to understand what motivates and drives someone, what concerns them, and what brings them joy. When you're in a dot-connecting mode, all of that info helps you know who to link up. Helping people when there is no chance of commercial gain is your moment of truth. Connecting dots for people is how you leave a legacy. It's worth the fight. Choose your attitude every day and build your resilience over time so you can keep pushing forward. If your definition of business development is helping people, getting a no every once in a while is not an issue. Mo asks Mike Duffy: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Mike has a top 4: "Walk Around the Brain", "Build It Together", "MITs", and "Give to Gets". Mike has writing pads all over his office to help him write down questions that cover all four quadrants of the brain and to make sure he's prepared for every meeting. When he's in the meeting Mike always makes sure that the client has their fingerprints on the plan. MITs help Mike move the ball forward every week and Give to Gets allow prospects to get a sample of what it's like to work with him. The four quadrants of the brain consist of the why, the what, the how, and the who. When Mike is getting ready for a meeting, he develops two or three questions for each quadrant and then he pays direct attention to the language the client uses so he could build those words into the plan. He's always looking for questions that someone else hasn't asked so he doesn't sound like everyone else and can differentiate his firm. You can have a great idea or product, but if you don't engage the client, there is no guarantee they will want to take you up on your offer. A client's engagement during a meeting is a good measure of how good a job you are doing. Mo asks Mike Duffy: Tell me about a business development story that you are particularly proud of. One of Mike's top business development efforts

Mo asks Mike Duffy: If you could record a message to your younger self about how they should think about business development, what would it be? Mike's message would be to essentially to cold call for a couple months right at the beginning to get used to hearing no. He would also tell himself to feed his brain. Read books and consume information that keeps you moving. Treat your profession like a profession. If you treat your profession the same way that a doctor does and invest in continuing education every year to be a better leader and sales person, you will be successful. Mike invests in programs that he's heard about on podcasts and consumes books referenced in other books that have made an impact on him. You have to invest in yourself if you want to get better. Mike also builds relationships with people that are learning themselves and is curious enough to find out more about them. He's always thinking about how he can add value to a conversation or relationship, and thinking about the questions that allow him to dig deeper. When you ask questions, you learn. When you learn, you connect dots, and when you do that, everyone gets better and the effect can snowball. Asking the right questions is instrumental to Mike's ability to grow. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Mo asks Mike Duffy: Tell me about a business development story that you are particularly proud of. One of Mike's top business development efforts happened after a major company went under and all the audits they were doing went out for RFP. Instead of going into a presentation around pitching for the audit, Mike and his team just acted like they were starting the audit right then. The preparation was in understanding their business inside and out, interviewing their people and learning what it's important in their world, and building the audit in front of the client. This approach led to winning 87% of their pitches. That story stands out for Mike because it showed him exactly what his team was made of and how they could excel together. He was also able to look back and analyze the reasons for his success, and those bold moves became the basis for much of Mike's foundation for growth later on. Covid was a godsend to sales people and professional services. This was the perfect opportunity to figure out how to be creative and add value to people. You could outsell your competition by not being the same and providing a bit more. Mike was once asked how he has survived in professional services for so long, and his answer was, "Giving away all the credit and taking all the blame." That's Mike's philosophy in a nutshell. If Mike was forced to admit one of his qualities, it would be being willing to be blunt and honest when the project is going down the wrong path and pulling people back on track. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Mo asks Mike Duffy: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Mike has a top 4: "Walk Around the Brain", "Build It Together", "MITs", and "Give to Gets". Mike has writing pads all over his office to help him write down questions that cover all four quadrants of the brain and to make sure he's prepared for every meeting. When he's in the meeting Mike always makes sure that the client has their fingerprints on the plan. MITs help Mike move the ball forward every week and Give to Gets allow prospects to get a sample of what it's like to work with him. The four quadrants of the brain consist of the why, the what, the how, and the who. When Mike is getting ready for a meeting, he develops two or three questions for each quadrant and then he pays direct attention to the language the client uses so he could build those words into the plan. He's always looking for questions that someone else hasn't asked so he doesn't sound like everyone else and can differentiate his firm. You can have a great idea or product, but if you don't engage the client, there is no guarantee they will want to take you up on your offer. A client's engagement during a meeting is a good measure of how good a job you are doing. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Mo asks Mike Duffy: What is your personal definition of business development? Simply put, business development is helping others, connecting dots, and developing healthy and long lasting relationships. When you understand who your client is, whoever that happens to be in the moment, and add value for them, that's how you get stuff done. Where is the value chain and how are you adding value? It doesn't end with the person you are talking to right now. Servant leadership is the foundation for Mike's relationship philosophy. He's always asking himself internally about how he can be helpful to not only his client, but also his client's clients. When you ask the right questions, you get some interesting answers. Questions allow you to understand what motivates and drives someone, what concerns them, and what brings them joy. When you're in a dot-connecting mode, all of that info helps you know who to link up. Helping people when there is no chance of commercial gain is your moment of truth. Connecting dots for people is how you leave a legacy. It's worth the fight. Choose your attitude every day and build your resilience over time so you can keep pushing forward. If your definition of business development is helping people, getting a no every once in a while is not an issue. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Mo asks Mike Duffy: When was the moment that you decided that business development was important and you needed to get great at it? Mike's dad started in sales so he had a front row seat on making sales from the very beginning. He started his sales career by selling ad space in a travel magazine, and once he got out of college, Mike started selling ladies clothes in California. He took a $500,000 territory and in 18 months turned it into $2.5 million. He won salesman of the year at the age of 24 and ended up having a beer with his sales manager which led to a conversation that changed everything for him. Mike took a deep dive into discovering what really makes a good sales program and he became a student of sales for the rest of his career. Mike teaches lawyers business development now under the assumption that he has to sell the idea to his students. The goal is to help them understand that adding value to a relationship or closing a deal is sales by another name. If we want to live the life we want, we have to get great at growth. Start with the people you are going to call and how you can have a conversation that creates curiosity. That allows you to learn about what they need. Business development is about helping people. Business development habits set you apart when it comes to employment as well. It's hard to ascertain someone's technical expertise in a 30-minute interview, but it's obvious when you care, listen intently, and make the conversation about the other person. You always have to be thinking about the long game. Some prospects may not turn into clients for years, so you need to focus on just moving the ball a little bit further each day. Be transparent, have humility, and be honest. Tell people when they are your #1 target and allow them to shape the relationship in a way that's valuable for them. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com Mike Duffy on LinkedIn

Angela Meyer shares her thoughts and wisdom on business development based on years in the field as a consultant and executive for various companies. Learn why being deliberate about honing your communication skills is one of the most important things you can do to improve your business relationships, why being willing to fail is the key to long-term success, and why the Give to Get is your most valuable business development tool in your toolbelt. Mo asks Angela Meyer: When was the time that you realized that business development was worth focusing on? Angela's background is in mechanical engineering and it was during her graduate education while working with her professor where she learned the communication skills to be a great consultant. After beginning her career, Angela got a lot of hands-on experience in the business side of things while working with the CEO of a forensic engineering company. That's where she learned that in order to be a great consultant, she couldn't just be running calculations, she had to become good at developing relationships. Angela always thought that she was a good speaker and communicator, but after giving a presentation on a case study that she had worked on and not being able to answer the questions from the audience, she knew she had some room to improve. After seeing a recording of herself during a presentation, Angela knew that if she was going to be good at business development, she was going to have to improve her communication skills. Soft skills turn into hard results. Angela improves incrementally by watching people do great work and trying to learn from them. The other aspect is putting it into practice. You have to try and fail. If you don't try, you don't learn. If you don't ask, you don't get. From Angela's perspective, she has multiple failures, but she uses those failures to learn and get better. You can't rely on your company to train you to become a better, more well-rounded consultant. The presentation training class that Angela attended was the best $150 she spent. If you're not willing to put yourself out there and try to build a relationship, you might as well stay in the back office. Start with your network that you know or see everyday. Create a list of all the people you've worked with over the past six months and see when the last time you connected with them without talking about the project. It's about getting the next small win and developing the relationship and building your network. Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is your personal definition of business development? Angela doesn't use the term business development. In her previous position she was the Vice President of Client Services. She wanted to avoid the term business development because she's in the relationship business and not selling to people. Unless you're selling a commodity, no matter how smart you are, without building a relationship and providing value for a client and gaining their trust, you'll never get the business. Angela got her first job at the age of 13 working at an amusement park. She believes that everyone should work in service when they are younger because it teaches you essential relationship skills. You need a complete skill set and not just technical chops. If you want to improve you have to continue to expand past your current role. Angela loves the business development process because it's an opportunity to grow herself, the brand reputation of the firm she's working with, and her knowledge of how she can help clients. It's okay to not like it or to be afraid because it comes with the territory. If you grow your relationships one client at a time, those people will help you grow your career. Your raving fans will open doors for you to walk through. The way that Angela likes to learn about new areas she needs to be able to sell is setting up a Google alert for it. When Angela has a client that would be interested in a topic she's reading about, she'll forward the article to them. As she's gotten older, Angela makes use of a CRM to remind her of information and things she needs to do. Combining those two methods together works very well. When you're a highly skilled technician, it can be challenging to see things outside your focus. Don't feel like you have to do everything alone. You can pair up with other people in your organization and share skills and ideas. Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Angela's favorite strategy is the Give to Get. Giving somebody value or knowledge they didn't have before is a great way to start off a relationship. If you continue to show interest in someone personally, and not just professionally, and provide them value that can help them grow their career, they are going to care about you. You have to break someone out of the rut of working with someone else if it's not you. Building trust and deepening the relationship in the beginning is cruc

Mo asks Angela Meyer: If you could send a message to your prior self, what would you say? No matter what business you're in, it's important to not be afraid to try and not be afraid to fail. You need to fail before you can succeed. You're always selling yourself or your product, so you have to be willing to extend yourself and grow. Hone your communication skills and learn how to bring the energy to a conversation that creates connection with someone. The third thing would be to build your network. Stay in touch with people and keep networking because you never know where your next job is going to come from. Be excited about what you're doing and what you're working on. It's not just a job, it's an adventure. For Angela, the energy she brings to her relationships is what makes her memorable. Everybody has some level of impostor syndrome. You don't need to be cocky to believe in yourself. Humility to admit you don't know everything is a good place to approach things. The big lesson is to be confident in your ability to try your best, to keep learning, and to get better over time. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn

Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is a business development moment that you're particularly proud of? You have to build the relationship and understand that the work may not come in the first meeting. Angela tells the story of a client that was in-house counsel for a major company that Angela's firm had done a lot of work for. He set a dinner meeting with this attorney and during the conversation discovered that he felt completely unappreciated by Angela's firm. You have to be willing to ask questions and get feedback from your clients on how they like working with your firm. Angela turned that relationship around by helping the attorney with a few of his presentations he was giving. By providing value and showing that she cared, he became a valuable client for years. It takes a lot of good experiences to outweigh the effect of one bad experience. Sometimes the negative experience can be something as simple as not picking up the check. In the initial consultation, it's important to establish the lines and modes of communication. It's also important to set the expectation around the first bill. Most professional service firms fail around client management. At the end of the engagement always ask for feedback. That time is the perfect opportunity to land more work or a referral to someone else. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn

Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Angela's favorite strategy is the Give to Get. Giving somebody value or knowledge they didn't have before is a great way to start off a relationship. If you continue to show interest in someone personally, and not just professionally, and provide them value that can help them grow their career, they are going to care about you. You have to break someone out of the rut of working with someone else if it's not you. Building trust and deepening the relationship in the beginning is crucial to starting things out. Angela has seen a number of her former colleagues help clients and prospects by summarizing the science on particular issues like climate change, sustainability, and environmental compliance. There is a big difference between forwarding an article to a client and talking the person through the content. The hardest thing is asking for the business, which is why you should simply ask for the next step. No is just another answer. You have to be able to explain more and give more so that eventually the answer is going to be yes. You can't assume your client is going to read and consume the content you send them. You have to ask them for the opportunity to explain how it's helpful and why you sent it to them. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn

Mo asks Angela Meyer: What is your personal definition of business development? Angela doesn't use the term business development. In her previous position she was the Vice President of Client Services. She wanted to avoid the term business development because she's in the relationship business and not selling to people. Unless you're selling a commodity, no matter how smart you are, without building a relationship and providing value for a client and gaining their trust, you'll never get the business. Angela got her first job at the age of 13 working at an amusement park. She believes that everyone should work in service when they are younger because it teaches you essential relationship skills. You need a complete skill set and not just technical chops. If you want to improve you have to continue to expand past your current role. Angela loves the business development process because it's an opportunity to grow herself, the brand reputation of the firm she's working with, and her knowledge of how she can help clients. It's okay to not like it or to be afraid because it comes with the territory. If you grow your relationships one client at a time, those people will help you grow your career. Your raving fans will open doors for you to walk through. The way that Angela likes to learn about new areas she needs to be able to sell is setting up a Google alert for it. When Angela has a client that would be interested in a topic she's reading about, she'll forward the article to them. As she's gotten older, Angela makes use of a CRM to remind her of information and things she needs to do. Combining those two methods together works very well. When you're a highly skilled technician, it can be challenging to see things outside your focus. Don't feel like you have to do everything alone. You can pair up with other people in your organization and share skills and ideas. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn

Mo asks Angela Meyer: When was the time that you realized that business development was worth focusing on? Angela's background is in mechanical engineering and it was during her graduate education while working with her professor where she learned the communication skills to be a great consultant. After beginning her career, Angela got a lot of hands-on experience in the business side of things while working with the CEO of a forensic engineering company. That's where she learned that in order to be a great consultant, she couldn't just be running calculations, she had to become good at developing relationships. Angela always thought that she was a good speaker and communicator, but after giving a presentation on a case study that she had worked on and not being able to answer the questions from the audience, she knew she had some room to improve. After seeing a recording of herself during a presentation, Angela knew that if she was going to be good at business development, she was going to have to improve her communication skills. Soft skills turn into hard results. Angela improves incrementally by watching people do great work and trying to learn from them. The other aspect is putting it into practice. You have to try and fail. If you don't try, you don't learn. If you don't ask, you don't get. From Angela's perspective, she has multiple failures, but she uses those failures to learn and get better. You can't rely on your company to train you to become a better, more well-rounded consultant. The presentation training class that Angela attended was the best $150 she spent. If you're not willing to put yourself out there and try to build a relationship, you might as well stay in the back office. Start with your network that you know or see everyday. Create a list of all the people you've worked with over the past six months and see when the last time you connected with them without talking about the project. It's about getting the next small win and developing the relationship and building your network. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com MeyerVorst.com Angela Meyer, PhD, PE on LinkedIn

Craig Budner talks about the key lessons he's learned as the Global Strategic Growth Partner at K&L Gates. Find out about how Craig secured a multi-billion dollar company's key litigation case way before the opportunity to pitch came up, the innovative way Craig generates leads that creates incredible value for the prospect at the same time, and why you shouldn't be afraid to fail. Mo asks Craig Budner: When did you realize that business development is good? Craig's brother was a litigator and from an early age had his own firm. This taught Craig the necessity of creating a brand and cultivating referral sources in order to grow the firm. Craig took a slightly different path from his brother in that he joined one of the firms in Texas. It was there that he created the relationships and connections that made him realize the value of being an advisor to someone and not just on legal issues. After creating a relationship with one of the firm's important executive clients, a partner encouraged Craig to run with what he was doing. During his associate days, Craig learned the value of doing a great job for clients and nurturing relationships. When he understood that clients were actual multiple sources of revenue, and that if he could cultivate relationships with people directly in his path of work delivery, he started to get the first call. He was being trusted by the people in charge of important projects, and that gave him the opportunity to do more fun kinds of work. How do you advise others to think about business development? Demystifying business development is the first step. The characteristics of good parents, friends, and listeners are the characteristics that make a good business developer. It's not about the money at the end of the line, it's about growth and learning, and getting better at putting yourself in the shoes of someone else. What do you think about mutually beneficial relationships? You have to be a better listener than a talker to develop deep relationships. If you're always thinking about what you're going to say, you're not going to get enough information out of that relationship to make it mutually beneficial. Think about how you can be helpful to that person. You can leave a positive impression on that person by reflecting back that you have heard them and you're going to try to advance their issue. Mo asks Craig Budner: What is your personal "why" when it comes to growth? Craig's father always had a history book in his lap and Craig was brought up in a culture of learning, so learning is at the core of why he does what he does. At a global law firm like K&L Gates, if you're not sensitive to the fact that people grow up in different cultures and with different languages it's not as much fun. The more perspective that Craig can have with what people are going through makes him better in his leadership role. How do you motivate yourself when things get tough? People are busy. Don't assume a lack of response is about you. Craig burns off steam in a productive way most of the time, either by reading, meditating, or exercise. People, when they need you, are going to be responsive. What are your favorite ways to stay in touch? Craig is a fan of interacting over the phone. There are a number of social cues that you can miss via email. If it's a warm relationship, a phone call to check in when there is some down time is ideal. The closer the relationship, the more likely a phone call will help you achieve that raving fan/trusted advisor status. Mo asks Craig Budner: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Craig's favorite module was on lead execution. That section of the program led to the idea of creating round table conversations instead of the usual webinars. The ability for clients to listen to their peers is incredibly valuable. It doesn't matter what industry they are in, there are always parallel problems they are trying to solve. When Covid hit, they shifted the round table conversations online. The way that GrowBIG framed lead generation led to the idea of the Client Connect program that advances clients when they want to get more granular after a round table. It became a natural progression for a lead to move further down the line. Lead generation isn't mysterious. It should be predictable and there should be a number of things you do every day or week to result in X number of conversations. What are your best tips to make those kinds of round table events successful? The big tip is to make the guest feel comfortable. Without that there are going to be a lot of introductions and not a lot of substance. Craig does a lot of homework on the participants so the conversation goes beyond the basics. It's also confidential. Getting repeat participants helps new people by showing them they can learn more by jumping into the conversation. Craig also makes sure that the focus is on the clients who are driving the conversati

Mo asks Craig Budner: If you could record a video about business development and growth and send it back to your younger self, what would it say? Craig would tell his younger self to not be afraid to fail. Have conversations with people that you may not be ready to start. Be willing to interface with people to learn their stories. It's when you're worried that you may not look good by asking people about their lives, that's when you are missing an opportunity to grow and get better. Divorce yourself from the outcome. Business development is what occurs before the pitch. It's better to be curious than it is to think of the things to say. When you're curious you figure out how to further your journey. You control whether you make the ask, and whether you listen carefully and grow from what you hear. You don't control whether someone is interested. Go to the conversation to grow. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast

Mo asks Craig Budner: What is a business development moment that you're particularly proud of? Craig's story involves one of the biggest matters of litigation that he's handled. As a relatively young lawyer, Craig had to convince the client that they could trust Craig and his team with a multi-billion dollar company's litigation against one of the top litigation companies in the world. It was about convincing him that Craig and the company worked the way he needed a firm to work along the way on other cases. The client had to evaluate the team's behavior over time in prior cases. It's often the things you do when it's not showtime that matters. It's how you treat the relationship with care, giving more than you're taking, and how you reflect listening skills. The client saw that Craig's team worked very well together as a cohesive team when the stakes were high. The bigger deals are won before the opportunity arises. Learning about the pressures the client was under and the goals of his position was key to developing the relationship that ultimately led to the opportunity to represent him. Treating everyone on the client's team with respect and making sure that he saw other members of Craig's team perform at a high level was key. Creating opportunities for interaction with the client's team definitely added value. Craig's team offered him a Hot 5, a weekly summary of the legal brushfires the client was facing, whether or not Craig's team was handling them. Being in the trenches with the client and over delivering for them gave Craig the edge when the big litigation revealed itself. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast

Mo asks Craig Budner: What is your favorite science, step, or story that you learned from GrowBIG Training or The Snowball System? Craig's favorite module was on lead execution. That section of the program led to the idea of creating round table conversations instead of the usual webinars. The ability for clients to listen to their peers is incredibly valuable. It doesn't matter what industry they are in, there are always parallel problems they are trying to solve. When Covid hit, they shifted the round table conversations online. The way that GrowBIG framed lead generation led to the idea of the Client Connect program that advances clients when they want to get more granular after a round table. It became a natural progression for a lead to move further down the line. Lead generation isn't mysterious. It should be predictable and there should be a number of things you do every day or week to result in X number of conversations. What are your best tips to make those kinds of round table events successful? The big tip is to make the guest feel comfortable. Without that there are going to be a lot of introductions and not a lot of substance. Craig does a lot of homework on the participants so the conversation goes beyond the basics. It's also confidential. Getting repeat participants helps new people by showing them they can learn more by jumping into the conversation. Craig also makes sure that the focus is on the clients who are driving the conversation. There are almost always issues that the participants haven't had time to address that you can provide value for and that makes them very receptive to a follow up. How do you make the offer to have a one-on-one conversation? Usually there is some indication on a topic a participant wants to talk more about. Craig usually follows up with an email within a day or two. One key element is asking participants how the roundtables could be better afterward. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast

Mo asks Craig Budner: What is your personal "why" when it comes to growth? Craig's father always had a history book in his lap and Craig was brought up in a culture of learning, so learning is at the core of why he does what he does. At a global law firm like K&L Gates, if you're not sensitive to the fact that people grow up in different cultures and with different languages it's not as much fun. The more perspective that Craig can have with what people are going through makes him better in his leadership role. How do you motivate yourself when things get tough? People are busy. Don't assume a lack of response is about you. Craig burns off steam in a productive way most of the time, either by reading, meditating, or exercise. People, when they need you, are going to be responsive. What are your favorite ways to stay in touch? Craig is a fan of interacting over the phone. There are a number of social cues that you can miss via email. If it's a warm relationship, a phone call to check in when there is some down time is ideal. The closer the relationship, the more likely a phone call will help you achieve that raving fan/trusted advisor status. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast

Mo asks Craig Budner: When did you realize that business development is good? Craig's brother was a litigator and from an early age had his own firm. This taught Craig the necessity of creating a brand and cultivating referral sources in order to grow the firm. Craig took a slightly different path from his brother in that he joined one of the firms in Texas. It was there that he created the relationships and connections that made him realize the value of being an advisor to someone and not just on legal issues. After creating a relationship with one of the firm's important executive clients, a partner encouraged Craig to run with what he was doing. During his associate days, Craig learned the value of doing a great job for clients and nurturing relationships. When he understood that clients were actual multiple sources of revenue, and that if he could cultivate relationships with people directly in his path of work delivery, he started to get the first call. He was being trusted by the people in charge of important projects, and that gave him the opportunity to do more fun kinds of work. How do you advise others to think about business development? Demystifying business development is the first step. The characteristics of good parents, friends, and listeners are the characteristics that make a good business developer. It's not about the money at the end of the line, it's about growth and learning, and getting better at putting yourself in the shoes of someone else. What do you think about mutually beneficial relationships? You have to be a better listener than a talker to develop deep relationships. If you're always thinking about what you're going to say, you're not going to get enough information out of that relationship to make it mutually beneficial. Think about how you can be helpful to that person. You can leave a positive impression on that person by reflecting back that you have heard them and you're going to try to advance their issue. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com [email protected] K&L Gates Client Conversations Podcast

Hacking our own habits to accomplish more was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Dorie Clark, Todd Henry and Ron Tite in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Hack Our Own Habits to Focus on Growth Activities, Even When We're Busy, with Dorie Clark - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e4 How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Todd Henry - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e118 How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Ron Tite - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e136

Deepening your business relationships genuinely was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Nathan Barry, Kara Goldin and Jay Baer in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Use ConvertKit to Deepen Relationships, with Nathan Barry - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e45 How to Use Undaunted to Deepen Relationships, with Kara Goldin - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e75 How to Use Customer Experience and Marketing to Deepen Relationships, with Jay Baer - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e123

Creating and closing the best opportunities was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Ozan Varol, Luke Burgis and Alisa Cohn in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Use The Contrarian Mindset to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Ozan Varol - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e26 How to Use Mimetic Desire to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Luke Burgis - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e38 How to Use an Entrepreneurial Growth Mindset to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Alisa Cohn - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e146

Big Ideas that you need for success was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Karim Nehdi, Josh Kaufman and L. David Marquet in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: Karim Nehdi on Whole Brain Business Development – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e127 Josh Kaufman and The Personal MBA – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e7 L. David Marquet and Leadership Is Language – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e13

Hacking our own habits to accomplish more was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Marissa King, Ivan Misner and Molly Fletcher in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Marissa King - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e82 How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Dr. Ivan Misner - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e22 How to Hack Our Own Habits to Accomplish More, with Molly Fletcher - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e106

Deepening your business relationships genuinely was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Josh Linkner, Vanessa Van Edwards and Mike Michalowicz in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Use Big Little Breakthroughs to Deepen Relationships, with Josh Linkner - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e51 How to Use Captivate to Deepen Relationships, with Vanessa Van Edwards - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e93 How to Use Fix This Next to Deepen Relationships, with Mike Michalowicz - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e57

Creating and closing the best opportunities was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Jay Baer, Ron Friedman and Nancy Duarte in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: How to Use Customer Experience and Marketing to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Jay Baer - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e122 How to Use Decoding Greatness to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Ron Friedman - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e98 How to Use Resonate to Create and Close More Opportunities, with Nancy Duarte - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e152

Big Ideas that you need for success was a theme throughout season 2 and we are highlighting some thoughts from Dorie Clark, Luke Burgis and Shawn Blanc in this recap episode. Be sure to check out their full episodes: Dorie Clark and The Long Game – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e1 Luke Burgis on Wanting & Mimetic Desire – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e37 Shawn Blanc on The Focus Course – What You Need To Succeed - video.realrelationshipsrealrevenue.com/s2e31

Nancy Duarte shares a simple three-step framework for telling a story in a way that creates empathy between you and the audience, as well as the one mistake that most business development experts make right off the bat that sinks their chances of making a connection with someone. Learn why empathy is the key to business development, what kinds of stories you need in your back pocket to create an instant connection with a client, and how working with your ideal clients can actually make business development easier. Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your big idea for people to grow their business that feels great? LinkedIn does a study every year and each year the biggest skills gap is oral communication skills and the spoken word across all industries. How you show up, the presence you have, and how you deliver is how you separate yourself from your competitors Communication excellence takes practice and the ability to understand frameworks and models. We need to be adaptive to the situation and what we hear, and we also need to be intentional about what words we use when communicating. The first step is always research. You can't come prepared with good questions without research. The first thing a salesperson should do is understand the strategic initiatives and how things are going to be measured. Empathy is a theme that runs through everything that happens in Nancy's organization. You can find a plethora of information about a potential customer in their newsfeeds. This can give you an idea of the kinds of pressure they are under. Sometimes an external person can be a better student than someone within the organization. When approaching a prospect, you should take some time to try to understand their perspective as deeply as possible including the culture, the biases, and the budgets. Nancy has a platform that enables her to invite people to part of it, which is a great way to initiate meetings. One of the values of Nancy's organization is generous experts. Nancy dropped over 100 customers during Covid to focus on 35 of her best, and subsequently, the organization grew over the last year. Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your best advice on creating and closing the meaty business we all want? Anytime you're speaking to an audience, no matter where that is, the first thing you need to do is think about your audience journey. You need to think about who they are when they walk in the room and who you want them to be when they walk out. Your role in that journey is the mentor. It starts with a big idea: Your point of view on an industry and what's at stake if the audience doesn't adopt your point of view. One of the most important things about the hero's journey is that they start in the normal world and then something happens that moves them into the special world. You need to look at every communication as an opportunity to enrapture the audience, bring them into your special world, and then have them go back to their normal world with new tools and gifts or special powers. As presenters, we often think that we are the central figure, but the truth is that each person in the audience is the hero of their own story. As the speaker, you're Yoda, not Luke Skywalker. If you deliver your material in a way that makes the audience walk out the door with your idea in their head and their heart, you win. Even if the audience isn't physically leaving when you're not giving value, they are mentally checking out. Authenticity is crucial and the best way to be authentic is to use the story structure to convey your perspective. Being able to show vulnerability is what makes you more likeable and connects people to you. Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your best advice to people for deepening relationships in an authentic way? The simple answer is storytelling. Studies have shown that different areas of the brain light up during a story, and it allows people to feel your content, not just listen to it. Storytelling is a powerful way to feel a sense of connection between two people. If the goal is to create a bond, the best way to do that is through story. If you don't have a great origin story, you should have a calling story. You should also have a collection of stories in your repertoire that shows how your product or service gets your customers unstuck. Origin stories are reasons to believe, but there are also stories just meant to bond or influence. They can come in the form of I, We, or They, and the more distant the story is from your own experience, the more you have to build in performance and empathy. The more you practice telling stories, the more you are able to inject your own genuineness and authenticity. Even Nancy hires a coach to help her craft her story. In one of her more recent internal presentations, Nancy took her slide deck and noted what emotions she wanted her audience to feel and when, and then recrafted the message to facilitate that. Mo asks Nancy Duarte: How can we stay focused and continue on the growth

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Nancy Duarte. Empathy was the common thread found through all the content of Nancy's interview. When it comes to a first meeting, whether that's meeting someone for the first time or with a new offering, most people start off with the intent of talking about themselves, and one of the biggest transformations Mo sees with his clients is to turn that around. If we are truly thinking with empathy, our mind is not thinking about closing the deal. We're trying to be helpful and get the client excited about getting our help. Follow-ups like a give-to-get, video training, or books are great investments in the potential client's success. Follow-ups come in four main forms; technical, procedural, relational, and big ideas. Those four touch on the four ways that people think, and good follow-ups generally span all four and are framed in a way that gets the client excited. Great relationships turn to commercial success over time. The problem comes in when you are going into a meeting trying to sell, because then you are less likely to be listening with empathy and securing the follow ups you want. Story is the most memorable way of communication. When people are listening to a story, research shows that the areas of the brain light up in a way that mirrors the story. If you tell your stories in the right way, you're connecting with your audience in an empathic way where you are both feeling the same things at the same moment. Get great at your origin story, a product story, and a client story. Deliberately practice them and hone your story telling skill. Build a list of the kinds of stories that you would like to use to connect with clients. We communicate best with stories that involve you and another party. Your 'We' story allows you to harness empathy and allows the audience to come along the ride with you in a way they can identify with. Empathy is the key to successful business development. It's essentially about always serving other people, being proactive, and helping your clients succeed. The more you help others achieve their goals, the more of your goals you can achieve. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: How can we stay focused and continue on the growth path while we're busy with delivery? It's definitely a challenge. You have to deliver your highest and best work in order to get repeat business, but you also have to spend a lot of energy on growth activities that are very different from delivery. One of the things that Nancy noticed by eliminating all the clients that weren't ideal for her organization was that it brought those two things closer together. Calendaring and blocking out specific time is also a good way to ensure those activities get done. To identify their ideal clients, the first step was to create a profile. It involved coming up with the right rubrics to understand which companies had the highest sales potential and biggest opportunity for growth. One of the most challenging roles is to be doing both delivery and sales at the same time. Care and honest communication is what will bring your clients back to you each year. Asking questions like "How can we help our clients achieve even more than they think they could?" is important to identifying those opportunities. Nancy also looked at how deep the penetration was into each organization and synergy with other services that Nancy's organization had to offer. Looking at each client from a utopian/dystopian point of view was a helpful exercise as well. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your best advice to people for deepening relationships in an authentic way? The simple answer is storytelling. Studies have shown that different areas of the brain light up during a story, and it allows people to feel your content, not just listen to it. Storytelling is a powerful way to feel a sense of connection between two people. If the goal is to create a bond, the best way to do that is through story. If you don't have a great origin story, you should have a calling story. You should also have a collection of stories in your repertoire that shows how your product or service gets your customers unstuck. Origin stories are reasons to believe, but there are also stories just meant to bond or influence. They can come in the form of I, We, or They, and the more distant the story is from your own experience, the more you have to build in performance and empathy. The more you practice telling stories, the more you are able to inject your own genuineness and authenticity. Even Nancy hires a coach to help her craft her story. In one of her more recent internal presentations, Nancy took her slide deck and noted what emotions she wanted her audience to feel and when, and then recrafted the message to facilitate that. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your best advice on creating and closing the meaty business we all want? Anytime you're speaking to an audience, no matter where that is, the first thing you need to do is think about your audience journey. You need to think about who they are when they walk in the room and who you want them to be when they walk out. Your role in that journey is the mentor. It starts with a big idea: Your point of view on an industry and what's at stake if the audience doesn't adopt your point of view. One of the most important things about the hero's journey is that they start in the normal world and then something happens that moves them into the special world. You need to look at every communication as an opportunity to enrapture the audience, bring them into your special world, and then have them go back to their normal world with new tools and gifts or special powers. As presenters, we often think that we are the central figure, but the truth is that each person in the audience is the hero of their own story. As the speaker, you're Yoda, not Luke Skywalker. If you deliver your material in a way that makes the audience walk out the door with your idea in their head and their heart, you win. Even if the audience isn't physically leaving when you're not giving value, they are mentally checking out. Authenticity is crucial and the best way to be authentic is to use the story structure to convey your perspective. Being able to show vulnerability is what makes you more likeable and connects people to you. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Mo asks Nancy Duarte: What's your big idea for people to grow their business that feels great? LinkedIn does a study every year and each year the biggest skills gap is oral communication skills and the spoken word across all industries. How you show up, the presence you have, and how you deliver is how you separate yourself from your competitors Communication excellence takes practice and the ability to understand frameworks and models. We need to be adaptive to the situation and what we hear, and we also need to be intentional about what words we use when communicating. The first step is always research. You can't come prepared with good questions without research. The first thing a salesperson should do is understand the strategic initiatives and how things are going to be measured. Empathy is a theme that runs through everything that happens in Nancy's organization. You can find a plethora of information about a potential customer in their newsfeeds. This can give you an idea of the kinds of pressure they are under. Sometimes an external person can be a better student than someone within the organization. When approaching a prospect, you should take some time to try to understand their perspective as deeply as possible including the culture, the biases, and the budgets. Nancy has a platform that enables her to invite people to part of it, which is a great way to initiate meetings. One of the values of Nancy's organization is generous experts. Nancy dropped over 100 customers during Covid to focus on 35 of her best, and subsequently, the organization grew over the last year. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com duarte.com duarte.com/nancy

Alisa Cohn, the number one startup coach in the world, shares why the entrepreneurial growth mindset is the foundation for business success. Learn how to think about your business holistically, how to create a flywheel of great habits that makes doing the hard things easy, and why the ability to change your state when you need to is an incredible superpower in your quest for business development success. Mo asks Alisa Cohn: Why is it important to think about running a business holistically? Everybody has to think of themselves as their own CEO. Think with the entrepreneurial mindset on how you are going to manage yourself, so that you can manage others and the business around you. The trouble is that people miss the entrepreneurial mindset and instead focus on the delivery aspect of the work. You need to be building business today, tomorrow, and well into the future. You need to do the activities that will eventually take yourself out of the business so that you can work on the business. When you are managing yourself, the most important thing is your mindset. You must carve out time to focus on things that build your business and not just the day-to-day grind. Structure your calendar so that it has those activities built in. A powerful activity you can do is to journal on what your future self and business look like. Project out what you want your future to look like, and then think about what has to happen in the intervening years to make that a reality. Those are the activities that need to be done today and everyday from now on. Distractions will always be ready to derail you. Practice not being distracted during the time you schedule for your most important things. Don't check your email, put your phone on silent and focus. You should look back at your week and see what you accomplished. You develop a flywheel of great habits by merchandising your success. Make celebrating your success a weekly ritual in whatever way makes you feel good. This can be done solo or in a group. Celebrating the things that move your business forward is extremely powerful. Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What's your best advice for creating and closing more of the meaty business we all want? Alisa's top tip is to think about your process of how you build relationships that eventually turn into business. Chances are you are great at one area of your process and other areas need work. Think about five different ways you can experiment and try something new for the piece of your process where you feel stuck. The first step is to identify the weak link by creating an environment of psychological safety. People are not going to share their weaknesses or mistakes unless they feel safe to do so. Once you know what to work on, it's about trying new things and learning from the process. The more you try, the more tools and repertoire you have and knowledge about what does and doesn't work. Many professionals work in an organization where it's very difficult to admit fault. You can help create the right environment through a number of ways. This includes open body language and leaders disclosing their vulnerabilities first. The leader should model the openness and warmth that they want to see from their team. Share stories of failure and what you learned. By doing so you are showing that a skill like business development is a skill that can be learned. Leadership is an unnatural act. All of us have to learn how to do things, which at times feel counterintuitive to us, to be successful in the professional world. Ask questions that generate an honest conversation. For clients, ask for suggestions about what you can do better or mention an area where you've heard from others that you're weak in and ask them for help on how you can improve. Asking good questions is a skill that permeates every aspect of being a high-end professional and senior leader. Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What's your best advice around how we can deepen relationships with clients and our internal team? First of all, recognize that what you want to and need to do is deepen relationships. It starts with the mindset. We don't make anything important until we make it important. Build relationships with the people you work with one by one. Start with listening to how they approach the world and tailor your style to that. People prefer real talk, not stilted conversation. Good questions can be the spark you need to ignite deeper conversations. When you stay present in a conversation and listen deeply, they can feel the energy and you become more attractive to them. Follow up questions are very effective at taking a relationship to a deeper level. A great place to start is to ask "What are you most excited about today?" People love to talk about that kind of thing and almost no one ever asks it. For Alisa, she's most excited about the imminent publishing of her new book, From Start-up to Grown-up. Mo asks Alisa Cohn: How can we hack our habits to keep focusing on the growth activities when t

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Alisa Cohn. One of the most important things you can do is have an entrepreneurial growth mindset. Stay on track with your energy. If you feel out of balance or like your energy is being drained, do what you need to do to refuel and motivate yourself. Get up and exercise, read a book, listen to music, take a coffee break. Whenever Mo gets a complimentary message from a listener or client, he puts the message into an inspiration folder so that when he's feeling low he can go back and remind himself why he does what he does. Leading others is based on the relationship you have from them. You develop that relationship by asking good questions and connecting with them at a personal level. Document what the people you know care about and what they are trying to achieve. This will remind you of their purpose and how you can support them in their goals. Creating an environment of psychological safety within your business is an important way to lead the business forward because that is how progress happens. Psychological safety drives growth, because if people can't share what they are worried about, the problems will never be solved. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: How can we hack our habits to keep focusing on the growth activities when the world is trying to pull us away? Recognize that your job is to put the first things first. You have to separate out what is critically important and what is just the "urgent of the now". Schedule time for yourself every day of every week to distinguish what the important things are and then put them on the calendar. If it's not on your calendar, it's not going to happen. Successful people do what unsuccessful people don't feel like doing. Do whatever you need to do to create the right environment and get you motivated to do the things that will set up your long term success. Your calendar shows your priorities more than your to-do list does. Alisa encourages her clients to get up and get physical to change their state to start off with. Use podcasts or audiobooks to put the words in your ears that motivate. Music or coffee may be what you need to start the engine, you just need to find the way that works for you. Catalyzing a state change is your superpower. If you need something a little bit bigger, you might need to take a bigger break. Taking a digital sabbatical once a week is a great way to reset. If you're feeling burned out, it may be from the critical voices in your head. Demonstrate self-compassion and surround yourself with people that make you feel great because that is one of the best cures for burnout. Find your purpose and then collect the things that keep you connected to your purpose. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com

Mo asks Alisa Cohn: What's your best advice around how we can deepen relationships with clients and our internal team? First of all, recognize that what you want to and need to do is deepen relationships. It starts with the mindset. We don't make anything important until we make it important. Build relationships with the people you work with one by one. Start with listening to how they approach the world and tailor your style to that. People prefer real talk, not stilted conversation. Good questions can be the spark you need to ignite deeper conversations. When you stay present in a conversation and listen deeply, they can feel the energy and you become more attractive to them. Follow up questions are very effective at taking a relationship to a deeper level. A great place to start is to ask "What are you most excited about today?" People love to talk about that kind of thing and almost no one ever asks it. For Alisa, she's most excited about the imminent publishing of her new book, From Start-up to Grown-up. Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com alisacohn.com